Fordham University Masthead Logo DigitalResearch@Fordham Oral Histories Bronx African American History Project 2-13-2007 Foster, Gertrude Foster, Gertrude. Bronx African American History Project Fordham University Follow this and additional works at: https://fordham.bepress.com/baahp_oralhist Part of the African American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Foster, Gertrude. February 13, 2007. Interview with the Bronx African American History Project. BAAHP Digital Archive at Fordham University. This Interview is brought to you for free and open access by the Bronx African American History Project at DigitalResearch@Fordham. It has been accepted for inclusion in Oral Histories by an authorized administrator of DigitalResearch@Fordham. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Interviewee: Mrs. Gertrude Foster Interviewers: Brian Purnell and Natasha Lightfoot Date: February 13, 2007 Page 1 Brian Purnell (BP): I'm going to start. Ok today is February 13,2007, we're in the home of Mrs. Foster. Mrs. Foster if we could please start by you saying your first and last name. Gertrude Foster (GF): My first name is Gertrude. Many people of my friends know me as Trudy. But my name is Gertrude Foster. F-O-S-T-E-R, Gertrude, G-E-R- T-R-U-D-E. Natasha Lightfoot (NL): And what was your maiden name? GF: Seaton. S-E-A-T-O-N. And I was born October 31,1927. BP: We'd like to just start with a little bit of a discussion of your biography, beginning with your parents. Were your parents from New York City? GF: Now my biography is a little interesting and a little unique because my grandparents immigrated from Nevis, West Indies. St. Kitts and Nevis. They immigrated here; in fact I was reading I think they were married here. But, and my grandfather's name was Harold J. Seaton. My grandmother's name was Blanche, oh gosh, her maiden name slips me just now, isn't that interesting. And of course her last name was Seaton. She died at a very young age. I think she was 26 and had three children, two boys and one girl. And both her sons died. And the little girl is my mother. And I was-- NL: Wait was she born in Nevis as well? GF: No, no, no, the children were born, in fact I think that my grandfather married here in the United States, but they came from Nevis. Blanchet was her maiden name. NL: Blanchet? GF: Blanchet. Blanchet was her maiden name. And once in a while when I hear about a Blanchet I wonder because it's a rare, it's not a common name. But anyway, Marceau, I can't remember because I was born in Rome, NY. And I was later transferred to, I was born, my grandfather didn't allow my mother to keep me. He wouldn't put me up for adoption; now this goes back in the '27; where you know you just, you know, children were just, not born like that. But he was a very arrogant, God bless you, pompous West Indian with no money [Laughter]. But anyway, I was a foster child, at a very early age, as an infant. And they even there, the foster homes allowed the foster parents to have children until five years old. And if they weren't adopted then you went on to a different foster division; in fact they had the infants and then the older children. And I lived with a very wonderful family up until five, during the depression years. And I was transferred on to, this was Sheltering Arms, I mention that only because as a nurse I saw where Interviewee: Mrs. Gertrude Foster Interviewers: Brian Purnell and Natasha Lightfoot Date: February 13, 2007 Page 2 they saw their mistakes, in the foster home division. And then I was transferred to Edwin Gould Foundation at six. NL: And where were all of these places located? In New York City? GF: They were in New York City. Sheltering Arms I don't know. I think it might have been in Brooklyn because my early life was in Brooklyn. The Edwin Gould Foundation had, you know where the West Farms train turns and there's a building there; that was their building. And that was where the children were brought in from families, and distributed. That's where their office buildings were. NL: So Edwin Gould's was in the Bronx, kind of in the-- ? GF: It was, I don't know what it is now. BP: But you were born in Rome? GF: Rome, New York, and then brought back because grandpa lived in New York. NL: I wanted to ask, did you have regular contact with your birth family? GF: Not much, because half of them were, a number of them are in St. Kitts or Nevis. The only person that I had contact with was my grandfather. Really, the only person that I had real contact- NL: And he remained in New York his whole life? GF: Oh he remained in New York until he died in 1960. Grandpa was the only. BP: So where did you spend your childhood, in Brooklyn? GF: Up until five years old; then from six on in the Bronx, and it was very interesting because I had advantages, and I was telling a young lady, I said, you know our race is a product of slavery and racism, being a certain, and that's a picture of me as a little girl having long hair and being, looking a certain way, you had people always liked you when you went around and I was always well liked, and I lived with Mr. and Mrs. Raimes just for a year. NL: Raimes. GF: Raimes. R-A-I-M-E-S I believe is their name. They kept me and another little girl for a year, and then Mrs. Raimes was disqualified as a foster parent. NL: Were these black folks? Interviewee: Mrs. Gertrude Foster Interviewers: Brian Purnell and Natasha Lightfoot Date: February 13, 2007 Page 3 GF: Oh they were all black. [ Crosstalk] GF: No, no, no, with anyone else. Blacks were placed with blacks. They might be of a certain, I know I blended with the people that I lived with, like the Delvalle's were my first foster parents. He was from, Uncle John was from Crensaw, and really looked like an Italian. I was telling someone recently, and Aunt Mita was from Virginia I believe. But they were black. Mr. Raimes, I don't know that much about him because I was young. I remember we lived on 224th street, that I lived in a beautiful brick home, amongst Italians and Polacks, but their home was beautiful. I had a Collie dog, and we had a car. [Laughs] That was back in, what was it? BP: 1933? GF: Something like that, yes, uh-huh. Which was quite an accomplishment for a black family. BP: What type of work did Mr. Raimes-? GF: I don't know, see because being young [crosstalk] you're not aware of those things. Then I came to my third foster family, who was Mrs. Laura E. Hall, she was a widow from Canada, from Montreal, and she kept me from the time I was six or seven, six and a half, until I was an adult. And the interesting thing was during the war years, here we go again to racism, when I was sixteen years old, the Edwin Gould Foundation wanted children to find their birth parents and to live with them cutting back on expenses. They did that to our children first and to the other children after. Most of the times you were with people who you knew you were part of their lives, and I resented it, and I went on to work and finish high school and stay with them until I was an adult. NL: Meaning the - GF: Mrs. Laura Hall. NL: So you never went out to try to find your birth parents? GF: No. Well, grandpa always allowed birth relatives to visit and things like that. So I always knew him. I knew him until the day he died, in fact we buried him, but anyway, no you were with, with Mrs. Laura Hall, who had one daughter at the time, Irene Hall, and they came from Montreal after her husband died, looking for opportunity in New York. And we lived first in the Dunbar apartments. That was years ago where they were private, set up by, was it Metropolitan? They were co-ops. In the early years of the Dunbar. Interviewee: Mrs. Gertrude Foster Interviewers: Brian Purnell and Natasha Lightfoot Date: February 13, 2007 Page 4 BP: Where was this? GF: The Dunbar Apartments were on 100 and it still exists. NL: Yeah, I've heard of them. GF: Yeah, 100 lets see, 13 9t\ 140th, it was one large building with entrances and it sort of closed from the rest of the community. From 8th Avenue to 7th Avenue, and it was where many of your people, what shall I say, who had advantaged, or advanced themselves, lived because one of the first judges, Judge Rivers, I can't think of his first name, lived in the Dunbar Apartments. A young man that I went to school with, no played with, Mark Riggers, who's mother was a teacher during that, I was eight years old, we were eight years old, he became, I don't know, he wasn't the first West Point graduate because the first West Point graduate was discredited back, I can't think of his name now.